Edgar Saavedra's Megawide Success

"Kulang ako sa experience, so I asked around, outside the Philippines..." 

In Bilyonaryo's interview with the young billionaire, Megawide's top honcho Edgar Saavedra shares how he asked help abroad and upscaled his business with investments in technology, innovation, and people. The self-made engineer, who prides in starting his business with no connections and less capital, credits his success to being focused and delivering quality, first-world standard projects.

He was able to participate in numerous PPP programs during PNoy's time, including PITX under a Build-Operate-Transfer at no cost to the government. One of his big breaks came when he was asked by Henry "Big Boy" Sy Jr to be a part of SMDCs real estate expansion plan. 

Notable projects in Cebu: Mactan-Cebu International Airport, Carbon Market.

On a side note, if PPP was continued, the government could have avoided the massive debt it has incurred during Pres Duterte's BBB program which was riddled with onerous loans, kickbacks, and credit grabbing.

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Why the BBB of Pres Duterte Was Wrong

 Government turns to private sector for infrastructure funding amid financial constraints

This article sums it up. The government does not have the financial capacity to follow up with its infrastructure plan. The previous administration heavily borrowed to finance its Build Build Build project, sometimes at the expense of onerous loans, to bankroll its development. Not to mention, favored contractors were given juicy projects with the standard SOP going back to the awarding party.

The ideal way to go would have been to pursue and continue the PPP of Pres PNoy, which the current admin of Pres BBM is looking into. Unlike the BBB, which is riddled with corruption, credit grabbing, and the like, the PPP ensured transparency and timely development of the projects since it involves the private sector. 

With the pandemic, wastage of vaccines, anomalous transactions by DepEd, DOH, favoritism in the DA, and many more corrupt practices, involving the private sector will put a small transparency in the transactions of the government. 

The ideal scenario is a little bit of belt tightening by the government and empower COA. That will in a way fix the runaway spending and lower debt. BIR needs to go after the big taxpayers, esp PBBMs unpaid tax estate. BoC needs to go after smugglers, esp the agricultural ones. 

Most of the people running the government are strong in name only but no track record to show of it. The government needs to hire tested and proven firms/individuals in its projects and consultations. As for the electorate, we need to smarten up and vote for the best leaders with the track record of service.

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